In her letter, Crosby calls on the government to take care before any move to a digital-only policy, in particular when it comes to long-term access and preservation:

"Work with the Library and Archives Canada (LAC)—to ensure any electronic-only publications meet preservation requirements and are captured accurately and completely for future reference. Until that time, if a whole program of printing is not possible, perhaps a limited run of paper volumes printed in a different format and given to selected key repositories—such as LAC and the Library of Parliament— would be an interim solution until a more informed decision can be made. Although the government seems to fall back on the digital archiving that Library and Archives Canada is doing, please note LAC itself has gone through massive budget cuts resulting in constraints on what they are actually able to accomplish (...)

"If the government continues on the path towards 'digital only' publication of the Statutes of Canada, we would encourage you to REPLACE the Publication of Statutes Act with a comprehensive plan that considers:

maintaining a small print run for long-term preservation purposes;

the future of the Canada Gazette, and in particular the Canada Gazette Part Three which provides our only official online version of annual statutes, as well as the helpful Table of Proclamations;

the future of the Table of Public Statutes. This Table was published as a stationary publication in the Statutes of Canada each year. The online version on Justice Laws is not sustainable in its current format – an annual archived version could be contemplated;

what will be the official version of our Statutes of Canada moving forward in a digital age?

a way to maintain the side-by-side, English/French comparison, which can be an important part of some statutory interpretation exercises, while still meeting accessibility requirements."

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Tomorrow is World Backup Day

"This independent initiative to raise awareness about backups and data
preservation started out — like most good things on the internet - on
reddit by a couple of concerned users. Let’s make this happen!"

The website explains how to backup important files either on a USB device or in the cloud.

Law Libraries and the Future of Public Access to Born-Digital Government Information: "As government publications have shifted from print to electronic, mechanisms for guaranteeing the public’s right to access government information have not kept pace. Because legal resources are among the publications most at risk of loss, law libraries should participate in efforts to ensure that born-digital government information remains freely available to all."

Increasing Article Findability Online: The Four Cs of Search Engine Optimization : "As researchers increasingly and exclusively conduct legal research online, authors must learn the essential skill of ensuring that their articles are both findable and among the top-ranked results in a search. This article highlights four search engine optimization best practices to apply to legal scholarship: creating effective titles, abstracts, and metadata; cross-discipline marketing to multiple disciplines; crossposting to multiple locations; and converting to searchable PDFs."

Statistics Canada Article on Police Resources in Canada

There were 68,773 police officers in Canada on
May 15, 2016. This represents a rate of police strength of 190
officers per 100,000 population and a decline of 1% from the previous
year. This marks the fifth consecutive year of decline in the rate of
police strength.

The 28,422 civilians employed by police
services across Canada on May 15, 2016 represented 29% of all police
personnel. Civilian personnel as a proportion of all personnel employed
by police services has consistently and gradually increased since the
1960s.

On May 15, 2016, women accounted for over 21%
of all sworn officers. Women continued to be increasingly represented
in the higher ranks of police services. They represented 13% of senior
officers in 2016—the highest proportion ever recorded—compared with 6%
in 2006 and less than 1% in 1986.

Year-end operating expenditures for police
services in Canada in 2015/2016 totaled $14.2 billion in current
dollars. Accounting for inflation, total operating expenditures rose by
1% from the previous year. Police spending increased annually from
1997/1998 to 2010/2011, but has since varied by less than 1% other than
somewhat larger increases in 2012/2013 and 2015/2016.

When accounting for population and inflation,
policing operational costs in 2015/2016 amounted to $313 per capita,
almost unchanged from $312 per capita in 2014/2015.

"Marijuana, otherwise known as cannabis, has been legally prohibited in
Canada since 1923. The 2002 report of the Senate Special Committee on
Illegal Drugs noted that there was little debate surrounding this
addition to the criminal law at the time; as such, the precise
motivation for doing so remains unclear."

"Today, the prohibition of cannabis is found in the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act (CDSA), which makes it an offence to possess, traffic,
import and export, or produce cannabis."

"Penalties upon conviction for these offences range from a fine for the
least serious possession offences to potential life imprisonment for the
most serious trafficking offences. Sentences are more severe if the
amount of cannabis involved is large."

"Mandatory minimum sentences apply if certain factors are present, such
as the threat or use of violence or a weapon in the commission of the
offence. A mandatory sentence need not be applied if an offender
successfully completes a drug treatment program."

The article also looks at how marijuana is regulated in other
jurisdictions such as the states of Washington and Colorado, Uruguay,
Portugal and the Netherlands.

"This document discusses the legal regulation of marijuana in Canada and
in a number of other jurisdictions. After some material on marijuana
itself, it provides an overview of the international drug control
regime, including current debates surrounding the possible reform of
this regime and the outcomes of the 2016 United Nations General Assembly
Special Session on the World Drug Problem, which took place in
April 2016. The document then turns to the legal treatment of marijuana
in Canada, including the prevalence of use of marijuana in this country.
It then examines different regulation approaches - including
legalization and decriminalization - in a number of jurisdictions."

Those jurisdictions include Uruguay, the United States, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands.

Monday, March 27, 2017

AMICUS National Union Catalogue to be Replaced Under Deal Between OCLC and Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has signed a deal with OCLC, the international non-profit library co-operative, to replace AMICUS.

AMICUS serves as a national union catalogue, helping users locate materials in hundreds of library collections across the country. It is often used for the purposes of identifying libraries that can provide copies of material via inter-library loan.

As LAC explains:

"LAC’s current system is outdated and no longer adequately meets the needs of Canadians. Following an in-depth analysis and consultations with key stakeholders in the Canadian library community, LAC concluded that it would be less costly to acquire these services than to build and maintain an in-house system."

"Implementation of LAC’s new library management system will take place over the next 24 months. LAC will continue to serve its clients using AMICUS while the new service is implemented. Once the OCLC system is fully operational in 2018, AMICUS services will be discontinued."

"To take advantage of OCLC’s world-class services, Canadian libraries must be members of the co-operative. Many Canadian libraries are already members of OCLC. In line with feedback from the Canadian library community, LAC has negotiated an agreement with OCLC whereby LAC will cover the interlibrary loan and copy cataloguing subscription fees for small public libraries and small libraries at post-secondary institutions (community colleges, CEGEPs and universities). In spring or summer 2017, LAC will let libraries know how they can apply for financial assistance in order to become members of OCLC."

"LAC will also work closely with Canadian libraries that are not OCLC members to resolve their interlibrary loan and copy cataloguing needs."

Sunday, March 26, 2017

New Caselaw Database for United Nations International Criminal Tribunals

The United Nations has launched a new version of its Case Law Database covering International Criminal Tribunals.

It provides access to the jurisprudence of the International Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), and
the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT which has taken over various functions of the two other tribunals).

Among the features of the database:

Extracts of key appeal judgments and decisions

Case law from the establishment of each
tribunal up until 31 December 2016

New search criteria allow users to tailor their findings
to their own preferences according to key words, case names, time
periods, relevant rules and more

Law Library of Congress Report on Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, and War Crimes Jurisdiction

"This chart reports on 149 jurisdictions that have laws punishing at least one of the three crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes. It indicates, where information was available, whether those laws cover only nationals, foreign persons when the offense is committed within the territory, or foreign persons when the offenses are committed outside of the country’s borders. In cases for which it is known that the laws have actually been applied, that information is included in the far right column of the chart."

The Law Library of Congress is the world’s largest law library, with a collection of over 2.65 million volumes from all ages of history and virtually every jurisdiction in the world.

Library and IM-Related Highlights from Federal Budget 2017

A few days ago, the website Librarianship.ca published Highlights from Budget 2017 offering "highlights of interest to the Canadian library and information management community" that are contained in the federal budget presented in the House of Commons on March 22.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Alberta Law Reform Institute Report Recommends Abolition of Perpetuities Law

"The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) recommends the abolition of perpetuities law in Alberta. Abolition has already occurred in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. Canada-wide abolition has been recommended by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada."

"The common law rule against perpetuities (RAP) originated in England in the 17th century as a way to prevent landowners from using future or contingent interests to tie up property for generations. RAP creates a perpetuity period for such interests based on the length of a life or lives in being in existence at the creation of the interest, plus 21 years. At common law, a contingent interest is void if there is any uncertainty at the outset whether it will vest within the perpetuity period. Over the centuries the courts expanded the common law RAP to apply to virtually all future or contingent interests in property, regardless of whether the interest is real, personal, legal or equitable."

"In 1972, Alberta enacted the Perpetuities Act (the Alberta Act) to reform the worst complexities and excesses of the common law RAP, based on recommendations from ALRI (...)"

"With court variation statutes governing trusts and non-trust interests available to address perpetuities issues, ALRI believes it is time to abolish the common law RAP and repeal the Alberta Act which reforms it. Other Canadian provinces have abolished perpetuities law without any apparent major problems resulting from that decision. ALRI’s consultation feedback, coming largely from the legal profession, judiciary and trusts and estates professionals, indicates majority support for abolition. While these results are not scientific, they do at least anecdotally suggest that many professionals working in the area are now comfortable with the idea of doing away with specialized perpetuities law."

The report discusses the situation in Alberta as well as the practices adopted in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, England and New Zealand.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Library Journal's Movers and Shakers 2017

"Now in its 16th year, LJ’s Movers & Shakers provides an annual snapshot of the transformative work being done by those in libraries of all types and sizes and across the field. At a time when individual and collective actions matter more than ever, the 52 people profiled here reflect the outsize impact librarians can have through the services and programs they deliver, their deep community connections and collaborations with partner organizations, and their one-on-one interactions with patrons."

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Toronto Star Three-Part Series on Trial Delays

This week, the Toronto Star has published a fascinating three-part series called "Justice in Turmoil" on the crisis of chronic delays in Canadian courts. The series discusses the fallout from the Supreme Court of Canada’s 2016 ruling, R v. Jordan, which set strict timelines to bring an accused person to trial.

Updated Research Guide on Investor-State Arbitration

"International arbitration between a foreign investor and a host State results from their agreement to solve their disputes in this manner. That agreement may take the form of a contractual provision (including those in a legal stability contract or a subsequent arbitral agreement), but increasingly it is the result of a foreign investor accepting a State’s standing offer to arbitrate disputes in international investment agreements (IIAs); primarily bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and free trade agreements with an investment chapter... "

"According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), there are over 3,286 IIAs in force. States often make information about IIAs. they are party to available online in order to promote investment and increase the transparency of their investment climate. Foreign affairs and trade ministries, relevant sectoral authorities and trade and investment promotion authorities are natural sources for this information."

Academic Law Library Statistics 2014–2015 Report

It describes collections, expenditures, personnel, and services in 74
law libraries at ARL member institutions in the US and Canada.

Among the highlights from reporting institutions:

they held a median of 461,436 volumes

they spent a total of $217,487,754US

they employed a total of 1,770 FTE
staff.

expenditures for materials and staff accounted for the bulk of
total expenditures, at approximately 47% and 45% respectively

they reported spending a total of $15,633,813US in one-time
resource purchases and $82,161,233US in ongoing resource purchases.

Canadian ARL members include University of Alberta, University of
British Columbia, University of Calgary, Université Laval, McGill,
University of Ottawa, Queen's, University of Saskatchewan, University of
Toronto, York.

Saturday, March 18, 2017

University of Virginia Website on US Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch

The University of Virginia School of Law has launched the Gorsuch Project, a website devoted to the career of Neil Gorsuch, US President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the vacancy left on the US Supreme Court by the death of Justice Antonin
Scalia in 2016:

"Hearings on the nomination of the Honorable Neil Gorsuch to the U.S.
Supreme Court are scheduled to begin March 20 and interest in the
nominee’s judicial record is high. To assist researchers, we’re proud to
announce the launch of the Neil Gorsuch Project,
a website that assembles all of Gorsuch’s written opinions, as well as
concurrences and dissents he either wrote or joined as a judge for the
Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Lists of published articles and speeches
by Gorsuch are also included."

"The idea for the Gorsuch Project was born after law librarians from
several universities and government offices faced a similar question
from their patrons: 'Find as much information about the new Supreme
Court nominee as possible'."

Earlier Library Boy posts about the nomination include:

Comments on Trump’s US Supreme Court Nominee (February 2, 2017): "SCOTUSblog, the well-known American blog devoted to analysis of the
United States Supreme Court, has been providing great coverage of US
President Donald Trump’s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch..."

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Library of Parliament Exhibition of Documents That Shaped Canada

"Over the coming months, people visiting or using the services of the Library’s main branch will have the opportunity to view the following six documents on loan from Library and Archives Canada:

the British North America Act (1867);

Canada’s first Speech from the Throne (1867);

the North‑West Territories Proclamation (1869);

the Statute of Westminster (1931);

the Canadian Bill of Rights (1960); and

the Proclamation of the Constitution Act,1982.

As the title of the exhibit suggests, these documents mark important stages in Canada’s constitutional development. But it is worth noting that each one has its own story that deserves to be told (...)

The exhibit Foundations: The Words That Shaped Canada is an exceptional opportunity to see six of the most important documents in our history together in one place. Visitors can use touch screens to access additional information on the era, the circumstances surrounding the writing of the documents and their impact on Canada’s development."

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

UC Berkeley School of Law Library Tackles Link Rot at US Supreme Court

The UC Berkeley School of Law Library has partnered with application developer Philip Ardery to host a service called U.S. Supreme Court Web Citations that will capture any web resource cited by the United States Supreme Court immediately after their opinions are issued.

This is intended to address the problem of "link rot", or hyperlinks that no longer work.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Webinar on UN Treaties

"This session will provide an introduction to the UN Treaty Website. Participants will learn about the main databases available from the UN Treaty Website: the UN Treaty Series and the Multilateral Treaties deposited with the Secretary-General, and how best to search them. Additionally, participants will be introduced to a few other UN publications and websites helpful in treaty research."

The speaker is Susan Goard, law librarian at the Dag Hammarskjold Library at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Canadian Association of Law Libraries Mentorship Program Applications Now Open

This is a unique opportunity for CALL members to grow professionally and network within the profession:

"The CALL Mentorship Program is an initiative intended to connect law library professionals pursuing new professional development with more experienced professionals. The program aims to foster positive relationships between members that will promote growth, leadership, and commitment to the profession. Mentees can come from any background in legal librarianship or even straight from a library program at the university or college level. There is no maximum number of years in the profession for mentees - if you feel that you would like to grow as a professional in your job or your new tasks, and would benefit from the guidance and support of another professional, then being a mentee could be for you. Similarly, mentors can come from any area of legal librarianship with no set minimum number of years in the profession. As a guideline, however, we suggest five years’ experience. Mentors have the opportunity to help in the professional growth of a colleague and, by extension, strengthen legal librarianship as a profession. Mentors may also find the partnership enables their own professional growth and heightens engagement in the profession and the CALL community."

A new addition to this year’s program is the offering of writing mentorship. Perhaps your job requires you to write/publish academically or you’re looking for some advice and coaching to develop your own writing portfolio. If so, CALL has mentors who would be happy to share their experience and offer guidance to interested mentees.

The deadline for applications is March 30, 2017. The application form is on the CALL website.

Law Commission of Ontario Final Report on Legal Capacity, Decision-Making and Guardianship

"Legal capacity, decision-making and guardianship laws affect thousands of Ontarians and their families every day. Most obviously, these laws affect the approximately 17,000 Ontarians who are currently subject to some kind of a guardianship order or the thousands of others whose capacity is assessed as part of obtaining consent to health care treatments, for admission to residency to a long term care home, or as part of the provision of many other services. In addition, every Ontarian who has ever granted or been given a power of attorney is affected by this area of law (...)"

"Does the System Reﬂect Contemporary Needs?Over the years, Ontarians have developed increasingly nuanced and sensitive understandings of the needs and capabilities of the individuals, families, and others affected by these laws. The Final Report considers whether the system in Ontario reflects and responds to these understandings. The LCO considers needs from multiple perspectives, including persons directly affected, families, service providers and professionals, and others. The LCO also considers needs in light of demographic and social trends, changing family structures, and Ontario’s cultural and linguistic diversity."

"Is the System Working on the Ground? The LCO’s Final Report discusses the legislative framework and objectives of Ontario’s capacity, decision-making and guardianship system at length. The Final Report considers whether Ontario achieves these objectives in practice. In other words, the project considers whether there is gap between the formal law – as expressed in statutes – and lived experience of the legislation. Understanding and addressing the “implementation gap” is an important theme in the Final Report."

"Are the System’s Legal Protections Adequate and Accessible?Meaningful access to justice underpins the entire legal capacity, decision-making and guardianship system. Effective and appropriate mechanisms for dispute resolution and rights enforcement are therefore a priority in the Final Report."

The report makes a number of proposals that would reduce abuse of vulnerable individuals, including elder abuse and reduce misuse and abuse of powers of attorney though better education, transparency and monitoring.

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Quebec Legal Info Service CAIJ Adds Commentary From McCarthy Tétrault

CAIJ, the Centre d'accès à l'information juridique (the network of courthouse law
libraries associated with the Québec Bar Association), has signed resource sharing agreements with many major law firms in Québec that make their legal commentary freely available on the CAIJ website.

Their matetrial will be added to a
collection that already includes full-text commentary and textbooks
including the Développements récents
(annual reviews of areas of law), the Collection de droit (Bar School
materials), proceedings of the annual Quebec Bar Association
congresses, a growing number of treatises from publisher Wilson
& Lafleur, numerous annotated acts, case law, and a list of
thousands of legal questions with their corresponding answers.

Monday, March 06, 2017

Alberta Law Reform Institute Report on New Trustee Act

"In 2007, the Uniform Law Conference of Canada (ULCC) undertook a project on trustee legislation reform. The goal of the project was to develop a modern trust statute that would be suitable for enactment across Canada."

"This Report recommends that the Uniform Trustee Act, 2012 [Uniform Act] be adopted in in Alberta. However, certain aspects must be enhanced, tailored and clarified to reflect Alberta’s particular needs (...)"

Sunday, March 05, 2017

Youth Correctional Statistics in Canada

It provides a statistical overview of youth under correctional supervision
in Canada in 2015/2016. Average counts, intakes,
admissions and the characteristics of youth in the correctional system
(such as age, sex and Aboriginal identity) are discussed.

Adult Correctional Statistics in Canada

It looks provides a statistical overview of adults admitted to and released from custody and community supervision in Canada in 2015/2016.

Among the highlights:

In 2015/2016, there were on average 120,568 adult offenders on a given day, in either custody or in a community program. This represents a rate of 438 offenders per 100,000 adult population, a decrease of 3% from the previous year and a decline of 16% compared to 2011/2012.

On a typical day in the federal correctional system in 2015/2016, there
were 22,956 adult offenders being supervised, representing a rate of
79 per 100,000 adult population. The federal rate was down 1% from the
previous year and down 6% compared to five years earlier.

A large majority of adults (80%) under correctional supervision in the
provinces and territories in 2015/2016 were under community supervision
such as probation and conditional sentences.

The adult incarceration rate for Canada, which represents the average
number of adults in custody (sentenced custody, remand and other
temporary detention) per day for every 100,000 adults in the population
remained stable in 2015/2016 at 139 inmates per 100,000 adults.

On a typical day, in 2015/2016, there were 14,899 adults held in
remand, awaiting trial or sentencing, in comparison to 10,091 adults in
sentenced custody in the provinces and territories.

Consistently over the last decade, the remand population has exceeded
the sentenced population with adults in remand accounting for 60% of
the custodial population in 2015/2016.

Saturday, March 04, 2017

Using YouTube for Teaching Legal Research

In late February, we hosted a focus group at my place of work to ask staff lawyers what they thought of our library reference services.

One of the questions had to do with our ongoing program of "Tips and Tricks" training sessions.
Once a month, we organize quick 15-20 minute meetings where we show
how to research a topic (public international law, Quebec Civil Code,
criminal law, UN Treaties, etc.).

We demo databases or websites and prepare a nice, clean, readable
PDF handout for attendees. We also publish all our training PDFs on our
library Intranet. We have created a few dozen topical handouts so far.

But the lawyers at the focus group became very excited when one
attendee suddently suggested that everything be available on demand in
audiovisual format, a sort of "library Netflix".

Disclaimer

Neither the content nor the views contained in this blog represent the positions of my employer or of any association to which I belong. Any links to a news article, an academic study or another blog post should not be considered to indicate any form of endorsement on my part or on that of my institution. This is a purely personal blog for the purposes of sharing information about library issues and legal research.